A wealthy middle-class family in a small town. The son strays from the fold. All the townfolk say that the devil got into him. His family disowns him, and so as a last resort he marries the strictly brought-up daughter of a Christian petit bourgeois family. She talks him into opening an undertaker's business from what remains of his wasted fortune. He is quite skilled, so he starts to make coffins. They need every penny, for in a short time seven children are born, one dead.